New York, NY, Thursday, December 28, 2006 -- Donald M. Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, today issued the following statement in response to yesterday's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We respectfully disagree with the two judges who comprised the majority in this case. As the dissent noted, if this opinion is allowed to stand it will effectively repeal the Fourth Amendment for confidential electronic records.

"Under a search warrant seeking information about only 11 baseball players, confidential records for every player were seized, along with confidential records of thousands of other people with no connection to baseball, including many with no connection to sports. The government seeks to retain all of this private information about thousands of people who were not the subject of any criminal inquiry.

"In his dissent, Judge Thomas said that under this ruling 'no laboratory, hospital or health care facility could guarantee the confidentiality of records.' That is something which should be of serious concern to all Americans.

"We will consult with our counsel, and then determine what our next step should be in our fight to protect the Constitutional rights -- including the basic right to privacy -- of our members."